1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and a method of wiping a recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
There may occur a trouble that ink is adhered to a surface of a recording head of an ink jet recording apparatus in which discharging ports are formed (hereinafter, referred to as “discharging port surface”) and hence normal discharging is impaired. As a method of preventing such a trouble, the ink jet recording apparatus generally provided with a wiping unit configured to wipe ink adhered to the discharging ports.
The wiping unit as described above includes a wiping member formed of a material having resiliency, for example, for wiping the discharge port surface, and an abutting member configured to bring the wiping member into contact with the discharging port surface. A wiping action is achieved by bringing the wiping member to abut against the discharging port surface and scrubbing the same at a predetermined timing. As a method of wiping the recording head in a so-called serial-type ink jet recording apparatus configured to perform recording during a reciprocal movement of a carriage on which the recording head is mounted, a method of wiping by causing the abutting member to move while the reciprocal movement is stopped, or a method of wiping by moving the recording head in a state of abutting against the abutting member are known. The latter method, that is, the method of wiping during the movement of the recording head, is more effective especially when the frequency of wiping the recording head is higher. In other words, since the wiping action can be performed during the reciprocal movement of the carriage, the period required for each wiping action may be shorter than that in the method of performing the wiping action while the reciprocating operation is stopped.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-21809 discloses an example of scrubbing a recording head in the vertical direction with respect to a discharge port row of the recording head using a sheet-type wiping member. It is known that a wiping effect higher than that of the method of wiping the recording head by scrubbing using a so-called wiper blade is expected when this sheet-type wiping member is used.
In recent years, the recording using inks of a plurality of colors or inks having reactivity with respect to each other may be performed with the identical recording head in association with diversification of the ink jet recording apparatus and the recording method. In such a case, when the wiping action is performed by the identical wiping member, one ink may get mixed into discharging port of the other ink and, consequently, troubles such as image impairment like color mixture or a discharge failure due to anchoring of the ink as a result of reaction may occur.
In the example disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-21809, an attempt is made to resolve the trouble such as image impairment like color mixture or the discharge failure due to anchoring of the ink as a result of reaction by wounding the sheet-type wiping member. However, the resolution is not sufficient.